ZEROtherm Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800 VGA Cooler Review

Introduction:

As an enthusiast and gamer, one of the first improvements that we normally make involves replacing the stock cooling. Why you ask? Well, how many of you have been five or six hours into an all night gaming session and started getting video card issues? Artifacts, texture tearing, blocks of the the screen blacking out, or even snow (small white dots all over the screen). You wonder what the issue is. Overheating of the video card components might be the culprit, as heat is the enemy of the hardware we love so much. To make an aftermarket cooler worth the investment, it has to perform at a level better than the stock cooling. Not just one degree, but several degrees better at a minimum. We make the distinction that minimal gains are not what we look for in a replacement cooling solution, but that substantial improvement is what we look for to push our hardware to the max. Will the ZEROtherm Hurricane HC92 meet or exceed that standard? Let's find out!

The Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800 is built to be used on the Nvidia 8800 series GPUs, but is also compatible with Nvidia products from the 7600 series up to the 8800 series. The only exceptions are the 7800 AGP and 7000GX2 cards. On the ATI side, compatibility ranges from the X1600 on up to the X2600 series. Support is absent for the X2400 and X2900 GPUs. After the cooling performance gain I experienced with the ZEROtherm GX815 Gaming edition VGA cooler that was reviewed here on OverclcockersClub.com, I am looking forward to the results of our testing.

ZEROtherm (APACK) was formed in 1999 through a partnership between three engineers from the Electrics and Telecommunications Research Institute. The company has had ongoing success, including contracts with ASUStek to supply the cooling for its line of video cards, as well as being the OEM cooling solution supplier for ASUStek and Elsa's nVidia's 8600 series of cards.

Closer Look:

The packaging displays the Hurricane HC92 Cu through the front panel. Listed on the front are some of the features of the product. Boldly on the front of the box the company proclaims that this cooler is optimized for the 8800 series GPU. The rear of the package shows the specifications and features, as well as some manual fan speed profiles and temperature guidelines to show what type of performance to expect.

Opening up the box, the cooler is packed tightly into a clamshell type enclosure. The contents are kept separate to showcase the cooler through the front of the box. Included with the cooler are memory heatsinks as well as ZEROtherm's own branded thermal paste, a fan speed control and a set of detailed installation instructions.